yuwang – American History to 1877

March 9, 2014

women sufferage, mastodon, and American democracy

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This week’s readings are primarily concerned with refining the ideological foundation and implementation of the Constitution. The readings provide different perspectives ranging from political elites, common people, and even discussions of symbolic sign to justify the Constitution and American democracy in general. The debate between Hamilton and Madison and the subsequent evolvement to Democratic-Republican societies challenged assumptions about deference to political leadership. Moreover, the discussions between different political groups demonstrated that government power was still constrained by the perception and the understanding of ordinary citizens. The emergence of the societies (parties) had also changed the political landscape by raising concerns of how people could voice their concerns between elections. The aforementioned discussions and concerns planted the seed for the formation of a bipartisan congress and new institutions that were not specified by the Constitution. Another discussion was about the role of woman in the Constitution through the proportion of suffrage during the Philadelphia Convention. James Wilson from Pennsylvania suggested representation in the lower house should be “in proportion to the whole number of white& other free Citizens & inhabitants of every age sex & condition including those bound to servitude for a term of years and”. He claimed that if the purpose of government was “the improvement of the human mind and the protection of personal rights, women must be included”. He also argued that women were never any less honest, virtuous, or wise than men. Therefore, women and men should have the same right in the society. Philosophically, Wilson contended that government was created for society and particularly a domestic society because marriage was the foundation for social relationships and for patriotism because women’s role as wives and mothers. Therefore, they had to be represented by the new government created by the Constitution. I found his arguments quite compelling, modern and progressive considering the era he lived in, which also means that it was not well conceived at the time. However, this radical statement made during the Philadelphia Convention foreshadowed the rise of a new liberal nation that we live in today. Finally, we learned about mastodon, a symbol of the new nation’s conquering spirit. Mastodon, native to North America, helped the founders to envision themselves as rulers of the new world. People at the time imagined the mastodon as a ferocious carnivore to express an American superiority and capability to defeat the British lion. Furthermore, mastodon was an emblem for the leaders to justify their dominance in the New World and the conquest of the American west. Even though mastodon was later found as an herbivore, it served as an emblem of power for the new leaders who lived in a psychologically insecure society at the time.

February 16, 2014

Military History in the New World

This is the first time Taylor describes the New World’s conflicts in great details. Like Rebecca said in her previous posts, American Colonies reads more like a social history, but this chapter shifts gear and presents us with the standard military history. Moreover, this chapter sets the stage for the Independence War, like Max suggested in his post. For someone who is not really familiar with colonial American history while reading the first couple of pages, I was hoping that the Native American would rise up and take advantage of the chaotic situation to claim their land. Instead, the conflict prepared for more British colonization and eventual dominance in the region via the American Revolutionary War.

The huge disparity in number of soldiers between France and England made the natives play an important role in the balance of power within North America. They were skilled at guerrilla warfare so they dominated the forest passages between the rival empires. They also exploited the strategic position between the French and the British colonies by receiving favorable prices and presents from both sizes. The French were more diplomatic and generous with the Indians because they needed them as allies to counter the British colonial numbers. However, the British offered better trade goods in better qualities and prices, obligating more Indians to make peace with British officials to obtain more goods. Therefore, the French lost the war without enough combatants; it was 75,000 French men versus 1.2 million English soldiers.

After the English defeated the French, they treated all Indians as their enemies and believed it was a waste of money to sell low priced goods to them. In 1761, British colonial forces invaded the Cherokee country, one of the largest tribe with 40 villages in the southern Appalachian Mountains. As British colonizers enjoyed their victories, English Parliament had to institute more taxes to compensate for the massive debt it incurred. Consequently, it tightened its policies to the colonizers. As some of the colonists travelled back to their homeland, they realized how much liberty and freedom they had enjoyed over the years. The imperial war actually made the British colonizers realize their own power and ideal of establishing a free society. Again, from defeating the French and colonizing the natives, the British colonizers had gained tremendous confidence in their own ability to survive in the New World. Therefore, the war to fight for independence was inevitable.

February 10, 2014

Chesapeake and the South

The colonists in Virginia enjoyed more political autonomy than their friends in New England and back home. Furthermore, Virginians developed a political philosophy that is similar to the modem federal system: representative democracy and popular politics. For both Chesapeake colonies, the royal ruler shared power with the wealthiest colonists who dominated the county system of local government. As a result, the political freedom attracted many young men and there was a skewed sex ratio. In 1625, only 10% of the population were women. The gender gap indicated men greatly outnumbered women and the prevalence of single men increased social volatility.

Similar to other colonies, the Chesapeake employed both indentured servants and slave labors. The colonists occupied all of the best tobacco lands and enjoyed tremendous trade surplus. However, the economic success also came at a heavy cost. The Native Americans again lost their lives for protecting their ancestral land. The colonists also made sacrifices by accepting shorter life expectancy and poor prospects for marriage. The economic success also created some social mobility and allowed people to express their desires. Bacon’s Rebellion took place as a result from a split between people who allied with the royal governor and a group of ambitious planters. The Bacon’s Rebellion actually played an important role in facilitating Virginia’s “democratic” process. The assembly decided to build a more popular political base by reducing poll tax. The colonists also started to treat visitors with great hospitality and generosity. Furthermore, the policies allowed the African slaves to acquire freedom after a few years of working. However, as the number of African slave increased, white masters felt compelled to use brutal punishment to control and motivate slaves. The planters created a racial system of slavery and almost all blacks were slaves and almost every slave was black.

The Chesapeake was functioning similarly to a modern democratic entity for a while but slave trade and economic gains from tobacco trade turned Virginia to a usual colony that is based on exploitation and violence. On the other hand, Carolina and Georgia were two very interesting cases because they both enjoyed economic prosperity yet did not solely used violence in the slave system. Carolina primarily attracted farmers and artisans from modest origins from both the Chesapeake and the West Indies. The Carolina’s leaders knew that deerskins and Indian slaves were volatile commodities, so they decided to develop valuable agricultural staple for export to prosper in the long term. As a result, the Carolinas became the empire’s great rice and indigo colony. In terms of social manners, the South Carolina elite became renowned as more gracious and polite than the gentlemen of Virginia. By 1670, Georgia became the first and only British colony to reject the slave system in North America. The Carolina and Georgia region enabled a relatively small group of whites became rich and politically powerful by developing a strong local economy and working together with a large population of African labors.

January 29, 2014

Old Conflict and New Order

Today’s reading is particularly interesting because it zoomed in on the specific events happened between English colonizers and Native Americans, which demonstrated the English brutal colonial approach. Then on the other end of the spectrum, chapter 12 described diversity in middle colonies that embraced differences among various ethnic groups and foreshadowed American’s future as a melting pot.

When the New English first immigrated to the New World, they tried to dominate the natural world, wild animals, and Native Americans through various economic means. In particular, they recreated the English style landscape and converted the Indians to establish their identity as civilized Christians. In efforts to refine the Indians, the colonists introduced modern concepts of private property and mentality of capitalism to the New World by buying Indians’ land and offering goods in return for their marks on paper documents called deeds. Furthermore, they tried to subdivide the landscape into thousands of privately held properties and regarded the deeds as Indian submission to European dominion. On a more sophisticated level, the colonists extorted wampum from southern New England Indians to exchange for furs from Maine in order to finance their continued expansion. In order to “enlighten” the Indians religiously, the English colonizers established praying towns with close surveillance to change their behavior and appearance. These various economic exploitation and religious subjugation planted seeds for imminent armed conflicts between the New English and the Indians. Since the Native Americans lack a collective identity as “Indians”, the natives operated in a fragmented way and were prone to English manipulation. For example, the English manipulated various tribal groups to provoke the King Philip’s War, the first civil war among the Indians. The conflict killed approximately a thousand English colonists and about three thousand Indians. By 1670, the 52,000 New England colonists outnumbered the Southern New England Indians by three to one. Other than the King Philip’s War, the English provoked many regional conflicts by giving fake promises and manipulating different tribes. These incidents clearly indicated that the English were experienced political entrepreneurs and colonizers, which contributed to the title of ”the empire on which the sun never sets” because they had been so effective at exterminating the local population and maximizing economic interests.

On the other hand, the mid-Atlantic colonies were more accepting and friendly toward different groups. The land was more promising than the initial colonies along the coast for cultivating grain and raising livestock. In addition, the region was not controlled by an exclusive power rather it was colonized by both the Dutch and the English. In particular, the Dutch established a republican government, naval power and had a high religious toleration. The Dutch captured huge economic interests by exporting sugar from American plantations and conducting slave trade from West Africa. Interestingly, Dutch also had the one of the greatest national wealth and the highest standard of living in Europe—they were extremely good at doing business and were least interested in mass migration to the Americas compared to English and Spanish. Unlike the English or the French, the Dutch made no missionary effort and considered mission work as unnecessary expenses. They told the Indians that they were brothers and joined together with chains as long as there was beaver trade. Thanks to the religious tolerance, middle colonies received dissident Puritans. The Dutch territories attracted a variety of peoples: Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and etc. Furthermore, the enslaved Africans were able to preserve their traditional beliefs. The overarching theme in the middle colonies is diversity and that allowed various beliefs and economic activities to thrive. It signified that the Great British colonial approach may not be the only way of life in the New World and different groups could coexist.

January 27, 2014

The Necessary Evil

Different from American Colonies that discusses the general colonial approaches of how various European powers conquered parts of America, Inhuman Bondage focuses on a specific aspect of the colonial life—slavery. These chapters provide the historical context and economic reasoning that the Atlantic Slavery System was able to thrive in the Americas. Moreover, Davis examines different models of slavery trade in North America and the Caribbean to demonstrate that the slavery system was operated differently in different American colonies.

In addition to commodity trading such as fur and tobacco, Europeans also captured their economic interests in slave trade. The Atlantic Slavery System exemplified an early form of international trade system that is based on international capital investment and regional comparative advantage. The successful slave trade resulted in low labor costs; so slave-produced goods had a distinct price advantage in the global market. Interestingly enough, under the principle of profit maximization, there should have been white slaves from the very beginning of international trade. Davis explains that the poor white Christians were protected due to their religious affiliations with the church, which have protected the poor from being taken as slaves. At the same time, sugar gradually became one of the most popular products consumed in Western societies, which resulted in transporting millions of Africans to the New World. Driven by economic interests, European colonists imported a large amount of African slaves to replace Native American labors. The colonists agreed that the productivity of one black was worth that of several Native Americans. Black slavery was indispensible to the rapid economic development in America.

Due to waves of African slaves being shipped to the New World, there were more frequent slave insurrections in the Caribbean because slaves often outnumbered whites as much as nine to one. The slaves from the Caribbean often engaged in negotiations with their masters and they managed to create an African-Caribbean culture. Unfortunately, their counterparts in North America would be outnumbered by whites and placed under their constant supervision and control. Nonetheless, within the North American region, there were also variations about the evolution of slavery. Slaves in the North were treated in a much more humane way than in the South. Slaves across different regions in North America have mastered different skillsets due to regional development. Compared to the slaves who lived on the Deep South farms, blacks in the North lived together with their masters. Consequently, there was far less racial segregation by residence in the mid18th century than in the early 21st century. Under supervision, the slaves could work alongside white farmers. Unlike in the Caribbean or Brazil, slaves did not have to transport privileged whites in sedan chairs. Moreover, during holy holidays, New Amsterdam blacks and whites dunk wine together and danced to African as well as Dutch music. There was also a kind of paternalism that existed in which masters supervised black life and give them advice. The great majority of Southern slaves were subjected to a harsh regimen of labor, and they had far less social and cultural autonomy in the colonial period than slaves in the North.

The history of slavery and detailed evolution in different parts of America was not new to me. However, it is interesting to think about the notion of “American free society” was made possible by black slave labors. No other society has been able to commit to a full set of contradictory ideas of oppression and liberty for decades. Without Atlantic Slave System, North America’s trade with the West Indies and export of Southern agricultural products would not have been possible. The American economic and political supremacy was created at the expenses of slavery despite its modern embodiment of freedom and liberty.